Hofner Archtops discontinued

[Musgo Real]

I wish all members of the forum a nice day. Merry Chrismas and a happy New Year.

Today I had a phone call with an employee of the German company Höfner / Hofner and upon my request I was unfortunately confirmed that the production line of archtop guitars has been discontinued. Unfortunately, I could not be told whether it was due to low sales figures or some other reason. Another part of music history is gone.

[JGinNJ]

That's too bad. I tried a used one here in the US. It was a nice guitar, but clearly not popular, it had been hanging in the store quite a while.

[Hammertone]

Today I had a phone call with an employee of the German company Höfner / Hofner and upon my request I was unfortunately confirmed that the production line of archtop guitars has been discontinued. Unfortunately, could not be told whether it was due to low sales figures or some other reason. Another part of music history is gone.

A I noted here, in post #25:
Hofner Verythin Standard - made in Germany
"Over at Hofner, European-built Verythin Classics and Standards have disappeared from their website, along with European-built archtop guitars. My guess is that these guitars are gone and won't be coming back anytime soon. Not a surprise, since they have literally made only a handful of any of these guitars in the past five years."

I'll post more information in the near future, but, IMO, it's fair to say that the reasons are entirely due to internal factors at Hofner. They'll be gone for awhile. This includes the Verthin Classic, Verythin Standard, Thin President, New President, Jazzica, New Committee and Chancellor models.There is a handful of new European-made Hofner archtops available at retailers in Europe, and I have a half-dozen or so new ones to sell here in North America.

[Gitterbug]

Scheisse happens.

[garybaldy]

They'll start to become desirable

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Will we ever again have a President everyone digs?

[entresz]

Will we ever again have a President everyone digs?

That's a gorgeous guitar but the 24 fret neck is a deal-breaker of me
It means the tone will always be thin/nasal sounding. It moves the pickup that little bit too close to the bridge.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Looks like some don't have a 24 fret neck.

[Archie]

I really tried to get into Hofners 'new' Archtops but I couldn't abide those mini diamond humbuckers.
I know they eventually got rid of them but..

The VP should have been a laminate and the P should have been solid.
Both should have had a set in, full sized humbucker, to add some warmth and bottom end to their sound.

I think that would have given them a much better shot at the market. A lot of people did give them a chance and the guitars were very well made.

Shame really. They just wanted to sit on the wrong side of convention.

[Cunamara]

Wow. Well, that's Gibson, Eastman, Hofner... so people will be hoarding archtops like TP early in the pandemic.

[Hammertone]

That's a gorgeous guitar but the 24 fret neck is a deal-breaker of me
It means the tone will always be thin/nasal sounding. It moves the pickup that little bit too close to the bridge.

-By 2005 (over 15 years ago), the New President was offered with 22 frets, although they were still also offering some w/24 frets;
-Introduced in 2003, the Chancellor always had 22 frets;
-Introduced in 2002, the Verythin Standard always had 22 frets;
-Introduced in 2000, the Verythin Classic always had 22 frets;
-Introduced in @2004, the Thin President went through some changes, but always had 22 frets.

[GregMath]

Hi, Hammertone. What are your favorite Hofner guitars?

[medblues]

My 24-fret New President doesn't sound nasal at all. I also get a gypsyish sound acoustically.

[Hammertone]

My 24-fret New President doesn't sound nasal at all. ...

Same for me. I think the difference in amplified tone between the 24 fret and the 22 fret models is slight, noticeable and not that big a deal.

My favourite Hofner is the Chancellor, possibly because I initiated the project and worked on the design with the owner of Hofner. Or, possibly, because it's a great archtop guitar. It's a fully carved 17" archtop with 3" rims, and Hofner made fewer than 150 of them between 2003 and 2020. Good times....

[Hammertone]

Will we ever again have a President everyone digs?

This one is pretty nice. I chased it around for awhile and will probably hold onto it. It has a decent-sized and particularly pretty neck:

[QsDuesBlues]

[QUOTE=Hammertone;1166927]A I noted here, in post #25:
Hofner Verythin Standard - made in Germany
"Over at Hofner, European-built Verythin Classics and Standards have disappeared from their website, along with European-built archtop guitars. My guess is that these guitars are gone and won't be coming back anytime soon. Not a surprise, since they have literally made only a handful of any of these guitars in the past five years."

I'll post more information in the near future, but, IMO, it's fair to say that the reasons are entirely due to internal factors at Hofner. They'll be gone for awhile.

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Sad indeed to see the end of 'real' German-produced Hofner archtops - and I must admit I ignored Hofner guitars for decades, only becoming a fan in the last couple of years after some 'hands on' experience with a rare one. Maybe part of the reason lies in my own previous sentence - viewing Hofner guitars for decades as unstylish and outmoded - as something fine for Bert Weedon but not for George Benson. Not true of course, but I don't think the guitar-buying public ever quite got the message from Hofner.......even the 'New' series never quite did it for me, style-wise.

And surely when a company discontinues its artisan archtop production for any substantial length of time, people retire, move on, shift to other skillsets, new staff are taken on and irreplaceable talents are inevitably lost.........I'm thinking of the 'classic years' teams under Carlo Greco's and I think subsequently under Willie Fritscher's supervision at Guild Guitars. With multiple changes in Guild's management, corporate ownership, the upheavals of repeated plant relocation and the difficulty of trying to 'keep on keeping on' in an uncertain environment........I think all contributed to making subsequent Guild archtops a very different product in the years that followed their earlier 'classic years' stability (notwithstanding the 'false dawn' of a temporary collaboration with Benedetto) prior to their archtop manufacture finally tailing off before being totally switched to the Far East..........

So 5 years hence, will Hofner still be able to make a quality home-produced archtop?

I can't say that a Chinese-made Hofner would necessarily be a bad instrument - I haven't played a Hofner CT-17 so can't judge. I just don't view it as a 'real' Hofner...........along with all the other brands of classic 'reissue' German/Swedish/American/UK names now made so far from their original source, in that manner we refer to as 'under license', designed by 'X' but made by 'Y' - and set up by 'Z'.

The only two 'Far Eastern' electrics I ever did buy - and about 15 years apart - were an excellent value-for-money used De Armond X-155 (Korea) and a horrendous new Revelation 335 (China) - returned to the dealer within a week at huge loss (I was clearly mesmerised by its' bling factor !)

I hope Hofner do eventually make a return to archtop production - the quality was always there - if perhaps the styling was sometimes a tad questionable, as with my recent purchase of a 50-year old Hofner 477. Great sound, great styling on this one, quality materials and playing comfort comparable to anything - and the model was around for well over 15 years, it seems.

It just needed a bit of tweaking to appeal to more of the guitar-buying fraternity - like an extra 2mm on the fingerboard end-width so that a standard 52mm string spacing at the bridge could be achieved - instead of the very tight 50mm it's actually limited to. And - oh, that wacky 'blood and custard' redburst-into-yellow finish.....something of a love/hate 'Marmite' quality there !

One final thing I've noticed - a skyrocketing of recent top-tier Hofner re-sale prices, e.g. a Hofner Chancellor at $11,000-plus.

So hang on to yours if you have one - might be double that soon.........!

[Hammertone]

One final thing I've noticed - a skyrocketing of recent top-tier Hofner re-sale prices, e.g. a Hofner Chancellor at $11,000-plus. ...

The American price lists from 2020 do not list the Chancellor, but the previous price list from 2015 does, with an MSRP of $9,799.99 for the violin finish version and $9,699.99 for the natural finish version. Even if prices have risen in the past 7 years, my guess is that the dealers who have Chancellors in stock will be happy to negotiate.